A singleplayer mode in Marathon could teach new players and keep the full story playable as the seasonal narrative moves on

I’m enjoying Marathon a lot. The gameplay is crisp, the atmosphere is incredible, and the tension keeps my heart rate up consistently enough that is shows up as a workout in Google Fit. Every creak of metal and distant gunshot makes me question whether what I’m doing is worth the risk, and much of that is due to the presence of other players.

I thought this would wear on me quickly. After the Server Slam, I decided not to buy the game. I’m no stranger to unapologetically competitive multiplayer games, but paradoxically consider the 4000 hours of Dota 2 that make up almost a third of my gaming career to be an aberration, and my preference to be for singleplayer.

And yet, the very next day, when the Server Slam was already over, I itched to play the game once more. So here I am, still making my way through Dire Marsh and relentlessly turning MIDA’s Sponsored Kits into bloody duffel bags for other players to pillage.

The game has generated an avalanche of discourse on a variety of topics, one of which is that many people wish it was a singleplayer game, summarized well in an article on Aftermath.

However, while I agree with much of the praise the article showers on the game’s worldbuilding, artistic direction, and overall impeccable vibe – I do not think a game direction altering time machine trip is required to make Marathon into a fantastic singleplayer experience.

A networking bug that puts you into a map with no other players would be enough to turn Marathon into a stellar singleplayer experience.

Sure, in an ideal world, it would be nice to have a full campaign in addition to everything the game already is, where the story is integrated into the map instead of delivered in between runs, the fights are carefully designed, and the loot is hand-placed to drive players to experiment with and experience every weapon.

But let’s be real: that’s essentially building a different game.

Instead, I think the game could effectively cater to singleplayer enjoyers with a minimal effort game mode with separate (but duplicate) story progression and item economy. In fact, I think the existence of this mode, something like a “Marathon Archives” is necessary for the health of the main game.

The UESC, which is the AI faction inhabiting Marathon’s maps, are an ever present and genuinely dangerous threat at every point of interest worth exploring. I’ve had runs where I encountered no other players and simply died to the robots while trying to reach my objective. This isn’t Gambit. The E in this PvPvE game got hands.

There’s a ton of story that slowly unfolds through priority contracts, presented through brilliantly voice acted conversations (well, more like monologues) and intriguing text logs. None of this storytelling relies on the presence of other players, and could carry dozens of hours of gameplay.

This would naturally be an easier experience, but minor tweaks to account for the player being alone could tighten it to keep more of the tension: more UESC enemies, fewer exfiltration points, less loot, less time. Being easier would also be an advantage in onboarding new players, particularly as active players get better over time.

Even players who are only interested in multiplayer would benefit immensely from this game mode. How? Please bear with me as I obnoxiously answer a question with another question: what happens with the priority contracts story when the season resets?

We know that faction reputation and priority contract progress will reset, but Bungie are also presenting seasons as a continuation of the narrative.

So, in three months time, will all of us once again be fighting for our lives in that infected house in The Columns? Or will the story continue right away?

Force players to repeat all the priority contracts before any new story and you create a list of mandatory chores that grows and resets every season.

Cleanly continue the story every season by removing the previous season’s priority contract story, and you’re making the same mistake that almost killed Destiny.

There’s no good answer, either choice has messy consequences… unless you have the Marathon Archives and you can just move the old story there. Active players get to feel the narrative progress over time, while newcomers can choose to play through the old stuff or go straight into the new.

Marathon will also seemingly feature changes to existing maps, so it would be nice to have a “time capsule” preserving that version of the experience. Particularly when it seems likely that those changes will involve entirely new factions of enemies.

Veteran players that can keep up with the story every season without fail and never want to revisit that experience could still use the mode to experiment with new weapons and builds, honing their skills for the main competitive experience.

A win-win-win scenario, if you will.